Explanations and Best friends
by BlueHeartsaremyPoison
Summary: When Cindy pulls another one of her pranks on Jimmy, he takes it a bit...unusually, which Libby notices. Can she set Jimmy straight on why Cindy is...well, Cindy? JxC, read and review.


**So, I have written yet another fic! This time, it's got Libby/Jimmy interaction, because let's face it; as friends, they don't really talk much. I made it Jimmy/Cindy though, so no worries (unless you like Jimmy/Libby, in which case Im sorry for bursting your bubble). It's rather short, but eh well. I wrote it, so meh.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron, or any of the other characters.  
**

* * *

Jimmy stood outside his locker, grabbing his math textbook and his science workbook. _Why do I even need this?_ He wondered to himself. He had worked out every problem in it the first week of school; it was April now, and the curriculum hadn't allocated for half of the book! He guessed it was habit, shrugged and closed his locker.

"And I'm telling you, Carl, that Ultra-Lord could _totally_ eat 4, 529 bananas in one sitting!"

"No he can't, Sheen! Ultra-Lord's stomach would explode from so much banana-ey goodness at once!" Carl objected to Sheen's claim. Jimmy rolled his eyes good-naturedly before speaking, "Uh, guys? Maybe we should get to class. Sheen can't afford any more detentions, or else he'll be held back...again."

Sheen spun around immediately and darted into the classroom. "NO! I can't sit through another year of 5th grade!" Jimmy and Carl followed a little more slowly, entering the classroom in time to hear Ms. Fowl squawk, "Sheen! Sit down and stop yeeeeeeeee—YELLING!" When the Hispanic boy sat down quietly, she continued "Now claaaaaass, today we will-"

But she didn't finish, due to children laughing uncontrollably. Jimmy had, at that moment, opened his desk to retrieve his trusty pencil and eraser so that he could work out equations while Ms. Fowl taught (he already read this lesson a couple days ago, anyway) and was given a surprise, to say the least. As soon as he had opened it, ketchup and mustard shot out and into the boy's face; Sheen, Carl, Cindy, and a couple other children dodged in order to avoid getting their clothes stained. Jimmy stood up, coughing and spluttering, wiping the offending condiments off of his eyes. To his left, Cindy wore a triumphant smirk and began to laugh. "Hey, Spewtron! You got a little something on you!"

Jimmy glared at her as best as he could while wiping away his face, then looked down at his clothes. His mother would kill him—these stains would never come out. "Jimmy! Are you alright?" Ms. Fowl came over to him, not sure what to do. "Uh...Ms. Fowl, may I be excused to clean myself up as best as I can?" he asked. "Alright. In fact, take this," here she scribbled a quick note on a piece of paper at her desk, "and go to Principal Willoughby. He'll call your parents and you can go home for the daaaaay" she squawked again. "Thanks," Jimmy said dejectedly, taking the note. He shot one last glare at Cindy, who laughed a bit harder at his red-and-yellow-smeared face. Behind her, her best friend Libby giggled into her hand a little bit, but her laughter was gone as she looked closer. Normally Jimmy was indignant. He would flare up, leave her an insult, whatever it took to make sure he had the last word. But not this time—he looked so...well, defeated. He left the room without a word, as the children kept laughing.

"Cindy!" Ms. Fowl turned to the young girl. "What have I said about you and Jimmy praaaaaaanking each other in my claaaaaaaaaasroom?" Cindy put on her most charming smile, "I'm sorry, Ms. Fowl. I promise, it won't happen again," she responded in a sweet voice. "Good. Now..."

"Hey, Cindy? Not that this wasn't the funniest prank you've pulled on Jimmy this week, but don't you think that was a little...well I dunno, harsh?" Libby leaned over to whisper to Cindy.

The blonde girl scoffed, "Puh-lease, Libby. I have pulled worse, and don't even get me started on some of the stuff Neutron does! Besides, it's a harmless prank," she reasoned in a gentler tone. Libby was her best friend, after all. "By the end of the day, he'll totally get over it."

Unsure of what to say next, Libby remained quiet. _True. Jimmy does forgive and forget pretty easy. And it's Cindy; that boy would give her the moon if he needed to. Or if someone actually gave it to him first._ Feeling herself get off track, she focused, _Anyway, Cindy's right. We'll all go to the Candy Bar later, and everything will be fine._

As the last bell rang, the girls walked with Carl and Sheen. "So, you guys feelin' up to the Candy Bar later?" Libby asked, eyeing Sheen. "Me and Cindy are going, it'll be fun."

"Oh, I would love to! I want to try Sam's new Chocolate and Lime sundae..." Carl trailed off, absently rubbing his stomach. Cindy rolled her eyes and asked, "And what about you?" she asked Sheen. "What? Of course I would! Why would I pass up the opportunity to engorge myself with free sugar?" Sheen asked excitedly, slightly twitching at the prospect. Libby put a hand on his shoulder, "Uh...make sure you take your medicine before you go." Cindy crossed her arms, "And it's not free, stupid..."

They walked together, chattering animatedly until they stopped in front of Sheen's house. "Hey, Carl! Come look at my new limited edition Ultra-Lord action figure! It came with a free poster!" Sheen practically begged the boy. "Okay. See you girls later!" Carl waved before both boys disappeared into the house. On the girls walked until they stopped at Libby's house.

"Well, see ya in a couple hours, Libs. Gotta go start my homework for the weekend," Cindy said, waving. Libby gave a small wave, biting her lip. What if Jimmy was outside, and he saw Cindy? She could already imagine an explosion and the start of World War 3, and she quickly ran up to her best friend. "Wait, Cindy! Why don't you just chill here and do your homework? You could help me with mine, and you can call your mom, let her know you're here and all."

Cindy looked up, thinking. "Hmmmm...well, it _is_ Friday...aw, what the hay. Let's go!" Libby smiled in relief and they walked up the steps. Cindy stepped inside first, and Libby turned to close the door behind them. Before it shut all the way, she glanced up the street to Jimmy's house. Hopefully, he would be better by the time they would meet up at the Candy Bar.

"Ugh. Where are those dork-a-zoids?! I want ice cream!" Cindy pouted, scooching lower in the booth. Libby had insisted they wait for the boys to show before ordering, and they were about ten minutes late.

"Relax, Cin. I bet they lost track of time. Maybe they went to Jimmy's for a ride," Libby assured her. "Hmmph. Well, they better get here soon, or else I'm taking mine to go," she replied grumpily.

At that moment, Sheen and Carl burst through the doors. "Hello, ladies," Sheen said, trying to be smooth. Both girls sighed impatiently, but said nothing. "So, the gang's all here!"

"Wait a minute. I see Geek One and Geek Two," Cindy said, pointed to Carl and Sheen respectively, "but where's Geek Number Three?"

"Oh, we called Jimmy, but he didn't pick up. So we went to his house before coming here, but his mom just said he didn't want to go," Carl said, waving Sam over.

"Man, you really did it this time," Sheen nudged Cindy. She glared at him to back off, which he did quickly. "Oh, come on. Nerdtron's just being a drama queen, as usual," she said with her usual confident air, but her face began to look unsure.

"Well, you ever think about going over there and apologizing to him?" Libby asked as Sam came over with their usual cones, while Carl told him his order of the day. Cindy looked at her skeptically. "Me? Apologize to Neutron? Please! We pull pranks on each other all the time, I don't see what makes this so bad."

"Okay, girl, chill. It was just a suggestion," Libby said, and Cindy smiled to let her know she wasn't upset with her. While Sheen attempted to engage Cindy in conversation, Libby absently licked her ice cream while Same came over with a bowl of brown-and-green ice cream and placed it in front of Carl, to which he, quite literally, 'dug in'. _Cindy herself would never be caught dead apologizing to Jimmy. But he deserves one, he looked pretty bad this time._ Glancing at her best friend, then out the window, she decided, _Alright. I'll go over and do it for her. Maybe I can get him to understand that she isn't a bad person at all._

Jimmy sat in his lab, working on his Unstable Molecule project he was planning to bring to Show-and-Tell next week. He focused hard on the task, working for about four hours straight. Being sent home early from school was both a blessing and a curse, he had to admit. His mother, upon seeing her son walk into their home covered in red-and-yellow stains, began to fuss ("Jimmy! What happened?" "You need a bath! March upstairs to your bathroom, young man!" "These will never wash out...well, you needed new clothes anyway, you're growing like a weed...") and Jimmy didn't say anything other than assuring her everything was fine ("Don't worry, Mom. Nothing happened, it was just faulty bottles in the cafeteria"). After thoroughly washing up, he got dressed and went immediately to his lab in order to work on his project he began last night. Now that he came home early, perhaps he could finish it by tomorrow night, provided there were no distractions.

Speaking of distractions, his mind began to wander to this afternoon. Why had he defended Cindy when his mother asked? Why didn't he just tell her? _Well, she would've have been called about her behavior, found out I told my mom, and it would go downhill from there_, he reasoned. But still, why would he defend her at all? All that girl did was make his life miserable at every opportunity.

He had to admit, her prank this time was pretty clever. But she didn't realize that the way she angled the nozzle of the small launcher caused the projected condiments to land dangerously close to his eyes; it had hurt quite a bit. He counted himself lucky that he liked mustard so much, which he hadn't remembered liking it until after that one incident where he and Cindy had switched bodies. Come to think of it, he hadn't been able to whistle since then, either...

Shaking his head, he got back to work on the molecules for another hour when his phone rang. Looking over at his monitor, he saw that it was Sheen. He contemplated picking it up, but he decided that he would rather just work and get this project done. Besides, he would probably bring up this afternoon, and Jimmy didn't want to hear about it. As clever as he found her prank, and while he did respect her ability to trap him like that, he was still upset.

"She never quits, does she?" he muttered to himself. "Why does she have to pick on me so much? She doesn't do anything to Sheen, or to Carl!" Goddard looked up from his corner and let out a small whine at his master's irritation. "It's always me," he mumbled, but said nothing more.

A few minutes later, his watch rang. His mother's face popped up on the screen, and she said "Sweetie, Carl and Sheen are here. They want to know if you want to join them at the Candy Bar."

"No thanks, Mom. I don't feel like going. Tell them thanks, though."

"Oh...alright." She hung up, and Jimmy looked at Goddard, who barked a little at him. "I know, boy. But I have to finish this if I want to bring it in next week. And besides, I don't want to face Cindy if she's going to be there." He turned back to his table after grabbing his welding mask.

At half-past eight, he heard Vox announce "Warning: Girl approaching." Jimmy ran to his monitor, where the camera next to the door revealed Libby walking up to the clubhouse. He quickly scanned around to see if her blonde best friend was anywhere around, but he didn't see anything. Maybe she was hiding?

Finally, Libby got to the door and knocked. "Jimmy? Hello?" Jimmy didn't move or say anything. Still no sign of Cindy. "Jimmy! I know you're in there! You didn't come by the Candy Bar earlier."

Jimmy pressed a button on his keyboard, and spoke, "I didn't feel like going." Libby looked at a speaker underneath the camera, where his voice had come from. "Well, since you didn't go, I wanted to make sure you were okay," she said after a minute.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow, "What? Since when do you care?" He could see Libby look a bit upset at that statement. He felt a bit guilty, but brushed it off. He was perfectly justified in that question. Empirical evidence proved it.

"Look, Jimmy, I just wanted to see if we were cool. I know what happened today was bad, but-"

"You laughed at me, too!"

"I know, and I'm really sorry!" Jimmy blinked, unsure he had heard correctly. "Come again?" he asked, puzzled.

Libby looked directly at the camera, "I said I'm really sorry," she repeated. "I know that I laughed, and it was wrong. What Cindy did today was a little over the line, and I just came to apologize."

"Speaking of which, where is the blonde-headed demon?" He asked, scanning his yard once again. "She's not here, she went home," Libby said. "I'm here by myself. I knew she wouldn't come, and while I know it's not much, I wanted to come talk to you myself. Is it okay if I come in?"

Jimmy studied her on his screen. While he didn't know Libby particularly well, he knew that she was a very sincere person. Granted, she liked to pick on him too, but she did it in good fun. It was simple, she was a girl, they were boys—of course they would pick on each other. But she never took it too far.

Finally, he pressed the button, "Alright. Hold on." He pressed another button, and the welcome mat dropped from beneath her. A second later, she landed behind him on the floor. "Y'know, you really should get a mattress in here. Or a pillow," she said, standing up and rubbing her rear.

"So, you came here to talk to me? I'm listening," he walked over to his fridge and pulled out two cans of Purple Flurp, ignoring her statement. While he was slightly cautious of a girl in his lab, he _was_ a gentleman after all.

Taking a can he held out to her, she nodded her thanks and said "Yeah. Uh, well...I came here mainly to explain Cindy's, uh...behavior."

Jimmy snorted into his can. "Explain her behavior? What is there to explain? She's a spoiled, smart-aleck with an attitude problem."

Libby just gave the boy a look. "Excuse me? This is my best friend we're talking about, you know."

"I'm very well aware, Libby."

She fixated him with the same look, saying nothing. After a minute, she sighed. "I know where you're coming from. I know she picks on you, and calls ya names and stuff. I did it too, I know. But you aren't right about her."

Jimmy sat down in his chair and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not? Then why don't you enlighten me?" He gestured to a couple of nearby deck chairs. Libby, following the gesture, sat down and looked at the deep hues of purple on her can. "Y'see, Jimmy...Cindy..." she started, but trailed off, trying to figure how she would put her thoughts into words. Jimmy waited but said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

"You said she's spoiled. Well, I can try to understand why you think so, trying to see from your point of view. She has lots of nice things, she always looks and smells nice...but the thing is, you don't know what it's like for her. Did ya ever stop to think _why_ she's so angry all the time?"

Jimmy didn't respond, thinking it was rhetorical. When it was apparent Libby was actually looking for an answer, he answered, "Well, she had told me about how I came in and upstaged her as being the most intellectual kid in Retroville."

Libby nodded. "Well, that's a part of it. You don't see Cindy with her parents often, do you?"

"No. Well, I do see her mother every now and then, but that comes with being neighbors, right?"

"Her mom, right. Have you seen her dad? Or both her parents together?" Libby asked. Jimmy opened his mouth to answer the affirmative, but stopped. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't. He saw her father at the Father's Day Follies, but that kind of spoke for itself. There was the time they did MacBeth in Space, but he faintly remembered that his parents were sitting with Mrs. Vortex, and her father had been in the back. And the time the Yolkians came back...but wait, they weren't together there, either. "Uh...well actually, no I haven't."

"Well, they don't really...get along. They fight a lot, and that means Cindy ends up getting stuck in the middle. She can't choose between her parents, could you?" Jimmy bit his lip as he tried to imagine his mother and father ever getting into a fight, and all his logical mind could come with were the numerical odds of his parents ever getting into a serious fight just once, which were 9,261,937 to 1, considering his mother's dominating and sweet personality, and his father's goofiness.

At his silence, Libby continued. "Her father is gone all day, and her mother is just unhappy. Cindy doesn't want to see her mom unhappy, so she does the best she can by being good in school. She did that for a long time, until you came along." Here Jimmy's head snapped up, and he saw how sad Libby looked. "I know it wasn't your fault, but that's how it was. Cindy's mom is a perfectionist. Cindy told me she guessed she was angry her marriage didn't turn out so well, so she took it out on her instead."

Jimmy's eyes widened at that. _Took it out on her?_ Libby noticed how worried he looked, and held her hands out in front of her after putting down her soda. "No, no no! It's not what you think. Mrs. Vortex would _never_ hurt Cindy like that. She just...she kept putting pressure on Cindy to do better, she could always do better. And Cindy thought the same way; she started pushing herself. And it's hard for her, since you are the resident genius," she explained in a sad tone.

Jimmy sat still for a long time. "So...she hates me...because I make her home life...harder?" Libby stood up and crossed slowly to him, saying "Jimmy, don't do that to yourself. Ya didn't do nothing on purpose, I know and she knows. She just doesn't know a different way to really go about it." Jimmy looked at the floor in thought. _She did seem happier on the island...she didn't want to come home. It explains so much._ He thought how, nearly two weeks ago, Cindy Vortex was like a whole different person when it was just the two of them, stranded on that island in the Pacific; how she said it was great without chores, homework, pressure...it caused her to stop hating him. The pieces fell into place.

"It makes sense," he murmured. Libby put a hand on his shoulder, "She doesn't hate you, y'know. I mean, she did at first. But you gave her challenge, and if I know that girl, she _loves_ a challenge. You include us on your little trips, and she appreciates that. She really doesn't have many friends outside of me...good friends, anyway. You're the closest to it." Jimmy blinked, looking at Libby, who smiled and nodded in assurance.

"So...she doesn't hate me?" Libby contemplated, "Nah, she doesn't hate you. But she isn't a fan of you sometimes."

"Leapin' Leptons, girls are so confusing!" Jimmy exclaimed in frustration. Libby rolled her eyes, "Like boys are any better. Listen, I basically told you her life, but she doesn't know it. Can we keep this between us?" She held her hand out, to which Jimmy took it and they shook.

"You have my word."

"Good. She'd kill me if she knew what I told you. I know you have this weird, love/hate dynamic going on-"

"We do not!"

"-but I'm not asking you to change. I'm just asking that you don't get too mad at her, and try to understand where she's coming from," she continued on, ignoring Jimmy's interruption. Jimmy nodded, then snapped his fingers. "Ah! I'll do what you just asked, if you will promise to try and get her to not do so many pranks."

"Uh...I'll try, but no promises. Once that girl gets going, there ain't no stopping her." Libby laughed, and Jimmy smiled in response. "Thanks for coming over, Libby. That helped."

"No problem, Jimmy. Now I gotta go, I told my Momma I'd be home to help put up new wallpaper in the guest room."

Jimmy showed his friend the way out, and made his way back to his molecules. "I guess she isn't so bad. She's still a she-harpy, and annoying and smart and...gah! Get ahold of yourself, Neutron!" Jimmy yelled at himself, to which Goddard looked up and barked. "She's still Cindy. I'll try to be nicer, but...that'll be very difficult."

He was about to resume his last stretch of work before his watch rang again. "Jimmy! Time for bed. And I mean you, young man! Not Goddard, or your Jimmy-bot, _or_ your hologram self."

Jimmy chuckled. "You really think ahead, Mom. Alright, I'll be there in a minute!" He hung up his labcoat, called to Goddard and made their way up to the house.

"Oh! One thing I have to do, first. Goddard! Paper please." Goddard handed him a fresh piece of paper, and his master grabbed it and slapped it on the table. Jimmy held the pen to his mouth, thinking of what to write to his rival and friend. "Hmm...something simple. Ah-hah! Got it." He scibbled something down on the paper, then threw down the pen and made his way to the door. "C'mon, Goddard, before Mom gets mad..."

On the table lay a simple note:

_Dear Cindy,_

_I know you're intellectual in your own right. While I do not promise to stop being, as you put it, "a big, show-offy butt-brain", I do promise that I will listen to your input a little bit more. Maybe we can work together like we did on the island? Probably not. Anyway, just wanted to say I'm sorry. I don't know what for yet, but I'm sure I should be, so...I'm sorry. Again._

_Your colleague,_

_Jimmy Neutron._

* * *

**So...yeah. A bit short, buuuuuuuuuuut...I really, REALLY wanted to do this. Libby and Jimmy don't get enough time together, that we see. And I get the feeling they would be such good friends later on, because she's a competent girl who's straightforward (for the most part), which I feel he would be able to appreciate. So, here you go! Now, I must go before my stupid computer dies on me. ;_; As always, read and review!**

**~Liviyan**


End file.
